Plans for unrestricted phone taps?

[MaiLuk]

The Nation

 

Civic groups decry police proposal for unrestricted phone-tapping

Published on May 18, 2005

 

Civic groups disagree with a proposal that new security laws being drafted to replace martial law in the deep South should allow authorities to tap into phone conversations without court permission.

 

Gothom Arya, director of Mahidol University?s Research for Peace-Building Centre, said such a provision would definitely violate basic human rights. Although police originally proposed tapping phone conversations without court approval, Deputy Prime Minister Vishanu Krua-ngam, who is in charge of drafting the new law, said he might include the police proposal, albeit with provisions for advance court permission.

 

?I?ve instructed officials to consider if we can include the suggestion of phone tapping, with court permission, as we have in the law governing the Department of Special Investigation,? he told reporters.

 

But civic groups remained sceptical yesterday.

 

?If there really is a need to tap a phone conversation, the law should require permission from various concerned agencies, as is required in many civilised countries,? said Gothom, who is also a member of the National Reconciliation Commission.

 

Paisan Promyong, deputy secretary-general of the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand, also disagreed with the proposal. He wants to know whose phone conversations the police would want to tap, and for what reasons.

 

?We already have many laws to handle the situation,? he said. ?I think the main problem is a dispute between the police and the military. If they could work together, they wouldn?t need martial law or that kind of thing.?

 

Charan Dithapichai, a member of the Human Rights Commission, urged the government not to allow phone tapping without permission. If there was a real need to tap a telephone conversation, then court permission should first be required.

 

Vishanu said police had also suggested powers under the new law to enable them to trace the financial transactions of Islamic boarding schools, which they claim are breeding grounds for militants.

 

However, this proposal seems unlikely to find support. The deputy prime minister said the government aims to make the new law applicable in other parts of the country, should the need arise, and not just to address problems in the deep South.

 

Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura said security officials on the ground badly need legal instruments to enable them to effectively fight insurgents who are staging attacks in the predominantly Muslim region on a daily basis.

 

Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former prime minister, urged concerned officials to draft the new law with care.

 

He said that perhaps the Kingdom didn?t need a new law to replace martial law, adding that he never thought to change martial law when he was in power.

 

Piyanart Srivalo,

 

Sucheera Pinijparakarn

 

The Nation

[New Petchburi Pete]

Is this just or fair? Compare it to what the Patriot Act allows for in the States!